1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a sunshade or otherwise referred to as a sunshield for automobiles, and more particularly to a sunshield in combination with an interior protective cover means which defines both an interior sunshade means and a visual security means, wherein the interior protective cover means is arranged to protect at least the driver's side of the vehicle from the sun's rays, and wherein the visual security means encloses the steering wheel and the driver's seat area, thus preventing visual access to that area covered.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known in the art, there are many suitable means to protect the interior of a vehicle from the sun's rays by employing one of the many different arrangements of sunshields or sunshades. Some sunshade devices comprise foldable paper-type products that are generally folded in an accordion arrangement. These types of sunshades have a very short usable life span due to the structural material from which they are constructed. Like other sunshades or sunshields as will hereinafter be identified, none have the ability to prevent the sun's rays from entering through the side windows of the vehicle.
Accordingly, this presents other outstanding problems that have not been completely addressed heretofore. These are caused by the uncovered side windows of the vehicle resulting in the steering wheel and seats becoming sometimes unbearably hot to touch, especially during summer weather when the interior of the vehicle can become exceedingly hot and light clothing is usually worn. This is, of course, particularly detrimental to the driver of the vehicle. The following two known U.S. Patents attempt to address this problem but in a limited way.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,784 there is disclosed an elongated sunshield that includes a plurality of adjacent collapsible loop members. The flexible loop members are covered with a suitable material so as to cover the entire front window, that is, the windshield of the vehicle. It also shows that it can be employed to cover the side windows as well, but one must purchase two or more sunshield units to protect the interior of the vehicle. In other words one would be required for the side windows and another for the front windshield.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,262 there is disclosed a sunshade device similar to that of the above-mentioned patent. This patent is different because it only uses a single frame structure such as a single elongated loop which is continuously deformable so as to fit a predetermined contour of the automobile window. But it, too, is limited in its protection from the rays as the sun changes its position relative to the windshield which is covered by the sunshade device of the invention. There is no suggestion of protecting the dashboard, the steering wheel or the drivers seat.
Further, there is no suggestion in any of the known sunshield devices that provides an interior security arrangement comparable to that of the present invention.